I was browsing The Choice, the New York Times’s blog about the college admissions process, and read one student’s recent post. Though accepted to every school to which he applied, including Yale, Stanford, Havard, and Princeton, this student was still reluctant about the aforementioned schools. His apprehension was largely shaped by the article, “The Disadvantages of an Elite Education.”

Though the article is very long and a bit hard to get through, former Yale professor William Deresiewicz raises many interesting points, particularly about how students at these types of schools have have a huge knowledge base…but do not actually know anything at all. Why is it that I can, and did, write 150 pages about 1960’s American drive-in movie theaters, restaurants, and churches, but am still confused by my tax forms, basic home repairs, and the definition of capital gains?